As the second episode of Bloodlands begins, DCI Tom Brannick (James Nesbitt) and DS Niamh McGovern (Charlene McKenna) arrive at the scene of an abandoned home where Dardis may be. The house belonged to his father who died seven years ago. Tom watches from a distance as Robert Dardis (Diarmaid Murtagh) jumps from the window upstairs in an attempt to escape, but he injures himself. He is taken into custody seconds later. Tom warns him that he is arresting him on suspicion of the murder of Colin Foyle. While the other officers are looking around, Tom finds a gun on the ground that he has to hide from Niamh. Once she steps away, he quickly grabs the gun and puts it in his pants. Tom visits Olivia Foyle (Victoria Smurfit) to tell her about Dardis being arrested.

She tells him that Robert called her three times last night. Olivia had never heard him angry like that before. He claimed that Colin owed him, but she isn’t sure why Colin would owe him. Although she threatened to call the police, she didn’t because she knows Colin isn’t a murderer. Olivia shows Tom the test message she got last night and initially thought it was Dardis. She wonders if it is someone pretending to be her husband. Olivia insists she has never heard talk of gold before. When Tom asks if her husband ever mentioned Goliath, she doesn’t seem to know anything about that either. Tom says Goliath was a real assassin named Pat Keenan but he is dead now. He confesses to sending the text message because he wanted to see if she’d mention it. If she hadn’t, they would’ve known that something was up.

He tells her that she did the right thing before leaving. At the station, Niamh looks at the notebook before approaching Tom who says it was submitted into evidence. Once she asks about the code, Tom pretends that he doesn’t know what it is. Niamh knows that the date is February 21, 1998 which is when the first Goliath disappearance was reported. She asks if he thinks that is significant. Although Goliath is dead, Niamh doesn’t think that stops him from being a lead in Colin’s murder. Later, DCS Jackie Twomey (Lorcan Cranitch) tells Niamh that Tom is right about the circumstantial evidence against Pat Keenan being strong. As far as they’re concerned, Pat was Goliath so both are dead. Jackie insists they’re not going to mention his name in the investigation and it is in her best interest. The seniors see that case as a cluster so they can’t let that happen again. Jackie warns her that the spotlight is back on them if something happens to Robert Dardis.

She is ordered to drop the Goliath angle because it is unnecessary. Instead, she should focus on collecting enough evidence to put Dardis away for murder. In an interview room, Robert tells Tom that he arrived at the Foyle house to take Olivia to the airport. He ran when he saw a woman with a gun and got scared. He is asked about his relationship with Olivia since they know he fancied her. They begin asking about his car and why he’d disconnect the GPS tracker. Niamh questions if he goes places he doesn’t want people to know about. Robert says nothing so Tom asks about his calls to Olivia last night. Robert claims she is lying about that. They know about Robert’s financial condition and how he and his wife work several jobs to make the monthly payments. Sandra loves him very much and says he is a great dad to his little boy. They question if the financial pressure was too much so he stole from a bent accountant or someone else got him to kill Colin.

When asked about his job in the army, Robert says he was a driver. He did tours of Afghanistan and Iraq so he is no stranger to combat. Tom believes he’d know what an M24 rifle was and how to operate it. He threatens to contact social services to see if they’d want to take the little boy away. Tom says they are within their rights since there could be reprisals for this attack. Robert yells angrily that they can try it. Jackie takes Tom and Niamh into his office to confront them about threatening Robert with losing his son to social services.  He asks Tom if he had too many concussions on the rugby pitch. Tom thinks Dardis is involved, but Jackie says he’ll walk free because he played into the solicitor’s hands. The calls to Olivia remain an unidentified number since they don’t have any physical evidence. Jackie tells Tom it is up to him to sort this mess out since he is the one who made it. As they begin arguing, Tom suggests Jackie is under pressure from above.

After Jackie scolds him, Tom returns to the team and updates them. Colin cared for his wife until she died. Then, he went to New York where he met Olivia Deegan. After Colin proposed, they got married three weeks later. DC Billy ‘Birdy’ Bird (Chris Walley) managed to track down Colin’s Facebook post proclaiming his excitement when she said yes. Olivia encouraged him to buy the house. Tom thinks he was obsessed with her. He goes on to say that Dardis has what it’d take to shoot Colin with the sniper rifle. They learn that Ops Hub is ready on the Dardis move and Tom’s daughter is there. Before Tom walks out, he tells his team that they need to find the rifle. Izzy (Lola Petticrew) is there to get Tom’s signature so she can get the mortgage approved. Since he is going to be working through the night, he gives her money to get a cab home.

He yells at Birdy to get him to make sure Izzy gets home safely. Tom goes back to snap a picture of the boot print they found at the scene.  He tells DC Ruddy and his partner to head out to the safe houses to provide overwatch. Birdy talks to Izzy about being the baby for the family with three older brothers. Before their conversation ends, Birdy asks if she’d like to get a drink sometime. Izzy agrees to do so. She says they can do it after this if he cancels the cab. He leaves to call the cab company. The detectives prepare to take Robert back to his house. Once they arrive, Niamh reminds Robert that they have the TSG team on task for his protection. They’re also going to install cameras for his security. Niamh asks if he shot Colin. Robert doesn’t answer and instead walks towards his family. Later, Niamh and Tom look at the camera feeds and explain that the TSG team will rotate with another team every couple of hours.

Robert goes into his bathroom where he retrieves a cellphone from a bottle of deodorant. When he calls Olivia, she asks him where the gold is. Robert isn’t going to tell her because it is his insurance policy now. Olivia encourages him to stay calm because the police don’t have any evidence on them. He believes she told them lies about him, but Olivia insists they’re playing him. Tom goes to a hardware store to see if he can find the boot that matches the print they found. Later that night, someone throws a Molotov cocktail into the shed outside of Robert’s house. Sandra (Elly Condron) and Robert rush to find out what is going on. Once the cops arrive, Niamh tells Robert that he is coming with her while his wife and child will go elsewhere. He eventually agrees to go with Niamh since he thinks it’ll be safe for his family. Izzy asks Birdy why he is looking around and hopes her dad won’t be the theme of the night.

Birdy apologizes and admits he respects Tom. He looks at him sometimes and thinks he can never be as good as that. Izzy believes he is chasing the wrong Brannick. They begin talking about whether it has always been just Izzy and her father. Izzy admits that none of his relationships lasted, but she hoped Tori Matthews would have become something. She seemed too good to be true. Her dad can be a bit funny at this time of the year since that is when her mother disappeared. Izzy worries what he’ll do now that she is moving out of his house and thinks he needs a goal. Robert is taken to DC Ruddy (Richard McFerran). When Robert asks Niamh who it is, she asks who wants revenge for Colin’s murder or who wants his silence. She calls Tom to let him know that Sandra and the boy were taken to House Juliet while Robert went to House Lima. Niamh thinks he might be right about possible paramilitary involvement.

Tom puts on the boots he bought and walks up to House Lima just as DC Ruddy falls asleep on the couch. Tom knocks on Robert’s window and tells him to listen carefully. He claims they think there is a leak in their unit. Colin was an accountant to the worst people and they’re after him. They have an insider feeding them information. Tom turns off Robert’s smartphone as they walk away from the house together. Once they drive away, Tom claims he is taking him to another safe house that the insider wouldn’t know about. After they arrive, Tom says his DS is bringing the key to get in so it’ll be a few minutes. While they wait, Tom asks Rob if he knew Colin Foyle worked for a criminal organization. He insists they can give him witness protection and all that, but Rob has to give them something in return. Tom can’t believe Olivia has that much hold over him.

He tries to convince Rob that she is hanging him out to dry since she is tucked up in bed right now. Tom asks if he is taking instructions from her or if he loves her. Rob gets mad and curses him as he tries to find out more about their relationship. Tom suggests he loves taking orders because there is something he isn’t getting at home. Rob begins walking away as Tom says he had access to the rifle so he had access to the gold. Tom asks multiple questions about the gold including whether he took it from her husband. Rob begins realizing that the DS isn’t coming. He admits to knowing where the gold is because he helped Colin move it. Tom says he killed him then. Rob reveals that he lost his nerve when he got information that the gold belonged to the IRA. He panicked so Rob told him that some ex-IRA guy wanted a meeting. Rob warns him that he’ll have nothing if he kills him.

Colin thought it was a police officer and then Pat Keenan got killed. Everyone thought it was him, but Rob doesn’t believe that now. He thinks Colin hired him to be security because he knew Tom was still out there. Rob suggests there is nothing Tom can do if he wants his gold back so they should get back in the car. As Rob walks towards the car, Tom gets angry and shoots him from behind. Tom decides to take the body out onto the water, weigh it down, and dump it. He uses the phone to send a text. Izzy apologizes to Birdy if she got a bit too heavy. Birdy tells her not to be sorry because he likes spending time with her. She says the same. Birdy thinks it is a bit late to be going back to Belfast. She will stay at her dad’s place. They agree they’d like to do it again before a quick kiss. Tom returns home where he hides the evidence and cleans his car. Izzy arrives moments later as he tells her to make herself useful.

Once they go inside, Izzy says it might be a good idea to put more distance between themselves and what happened with Tori. Tom admits he never thought about leaving while he makes sure she doesn’t find anything incriminating. Even after everything that happened, this is his home so he feels like a part of it. He thought that if they stayed maybe her mother would know her way back to them. Izzy asks if they’ve made a connection between Pat Keenan and her mother. Tom says no before she goes to bed. In the morning, Tom grabs the gun. Birdy gets a message from Alan who is with Safe House and Home Storage. He confirms there is a unit number 174. He tells Tom and Niamh about it and the fact that units 174, 175, and 176 are registered to Colin Foyle. As DC Ruddy wakes up, Tom and the others check the storage units. Ruddy learns that Rob is no longer there. Once the rifle is found, Niamh says they need to bring Olivia in.

After a call from Ruddy, Jackie complains about them letting Robert go missing. Niamh explains Birdy has been trying to get a location on the phone Dardis had on him. Since it isn’t a smartphone, they aren’t having much luck. Jackie learns about the storage unit having two rifle cases and one M24 sniper rifle. The rifle left behind was brand-new and had never been fired. Tom blames Jackie since this isn’t the first time he put keeping the peace before the pursuit of justice. Jackie claims he understands the balance needed to do the job. Niamh is sent to the house to see if she can pick up Rob’s trail while Birdy gets to help with Olivia’s interview. Birdy finds CCTV footage of Olivia going to the storage facility 48 hours after her husband’s murder. Niamh and her team find the footprints that Tom left behind last night. Tom asks Birdy not to disappoint him during the interview since it is a step up.

Tom goes into the electronics room and messes with the camera feeds from the interview rooms. He steps into the interview room to tell Olivia that they’re still waiting for her solicitor. Birdy sends Izzy a message saying he is still thinking about her. She texts him back. While Birdy writes a text to her, Tom begins talking to Olivia about the gold. She asks if this message was from him. Tom tells her about Rob’s burner phone. She learns about Robert being missing but doesn’t understand why he’d text her that. When she asks if he thinks Robert is coming for her, Tom says it would be too risky so he doubts it. Tom suggests she can help him find it. She wonders if she would be helping him or the police, but Tom says it’s the same thing. Olivia believes he is interested in the gold. Tom admits they don’t pay him enough although there is no reason to undertake in anything illegal.

When Olivia begins rubbing his hand, Tom pulls it back and says that isn’t going to happen. She claims he’d have something more if it did. Tom says she doesn’t have anything to offer if she doesn’t know where the gold is. Olivia reveals she is very good at keeping secrets.

 

Bloodlands Review

After the first season of Bloodlands, my expectations for the second season were low. Oddly enough, I’ve been pleasantly surprised through the first two episodes even though there isn’t anything revolutionary. The writing is actually pretty good this season. This is evident as viewers can watch the web being spun by Tom as he gets more desperate to find out where the gold was hidden.

There is a cleverness about the action that just isn’t present in many other shows right now. It is oddly satisfying to watch Tom dig himself deeper while doing whatever it takes to get what he wants. Then, he turns around and points the finger at everyone else without anyone having a clue what is going on. Since it’ll be difficult to cheer for Tom, we can instead turn our attention to the new romance between Birdy and Izzy.

That is a good touch although there is likely trouble ahead for Birdy since it feels like he is going to end up on Tom’s hit list at some point. The cast is great as well with the likes of James Nesbitt, Charlene McKenna, and Lorcan Cranitch. Lola Petticrew, Chris Walley, and the others are proving themselves too. Bloodlands has everything viewers could ask for without everything they hate.

It’d be a shame if viewers don’t return after the first season because the second has been thoroughly entertaining so far. It could be Nesbitt’s best season of television since The Missing if the quality manages to hold out. The second episode scores a 7 out of 10. Recaps of Bloodlands can be found on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our work here.